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A B O U T M E

I am australian artist, designer, illustrator, small business owner and mother to two beautiful boys who are my constant strength and inspiration.

The majority of my work is in artists quality coloured pencils, however I also have series of works in oils, acrylics and pen.

I have created this art journal to document my journey, whether it be art, design, promotion or business. I look forward to sharing my experiences, techniques and inspirations with others and hope that it can in turn help others on their journey, or maybe might just help to fill in a bit of free internet browsing time :)

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Today i went to my first figure drawing class/workshop. It was fantastic the time went really fast the model was great i had such a great day. The teacher was good, one of the things she kept drumming into us was to "keep drawing" drawing all the time just keep practicing.

I really struggled with my proportions, i purposely didn't do any pencil and stuck to my thick dark lines :) and juggled between many different mediums for different poses. The fine lines of the pen just werent working today .. the big fat willow charcoal was the best.

With my proportions i seem to have issues with legs and getting the proportions right on those.. on almost all of the the top half was working but the hips and bottom half just wasnt happening so i must get some practice in on that.

All in all it was great, she is hoping to do more weekend classes its something i really must continue on with it was great!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

As you probably can tell from the work i am posting of late in a weird phase atm trying to find"my style"and my feet.

So, it means lots of experimenting with various mediums and looking at various styles etc.I have to admit i have two schools of thought, i read many posts about how its important for artists should have a cohesive style as galleries and clients want that and i agree as people are drawn to a particular style so they are likely to buy your art because its the style they like.

The years of designing and art has however, trained me to be versatile to clients needs, so i feel like i can adapt my style/medium / subject in certain way not only depending on what the clients want but also on my mood. ie. sometimes i feel the urge to be very realistic and detailed with cp whereas another day i might be into doing a large broad stroke watercolour with just blocks of colour or scribbling with a thick dark black pen. It might be a texture or a subject that also pushes which way to go i generally will get a feeling of how i want to work.

During the week in my research (browsing :) i have noticed that many illustrators adapt their works for a particular book or project meaning they have different styles but is still their work and that is not just contemporary illustrators / artists its also some of the old masters as well, depending on the story or the subject.

So where does that leave me ? I don't know to be honest, on the one hand I should work out my style and stick to it.... on the other hand, i enjoy doing different things with different mediums and styles and isn't it good to be versatile and express yourself in different ways ?Hmmm i am not sure what the answer is.. ... and to add further debate i also like doing digital work, i have over 10years experience using graphics and illustration programs why am i not tying all my skills together and doing that also ? Theres many other people doing it ?? I enjoy it ... why cant i do that too.

(In an additional side note: hubby is telling me to buy lots of big canvases and paint big abstract works or something different as that is what galleries want and is what sells according to his well versed knowledge of the artwrold -- :-| )

Hmmm so answers answers answersi don't know what they are i am trying to find out what works for me... If you have any advice or opinions let me know.Meanwhile i have booked myself into my first life drawing workshop for Sunday. I have to admit i am a little scared its a workshop from 10am-4pm so its a long time, its alot easier for me with the kids to do it on one day rather than over weeks...i almost feel like i need to warm myself up for that. So you can see from the sketches my ideas for some of my tree drawings which the life drawing will hopefully help with.

Figure Reference linkIn great timing with all this for me is this link on Rose's Art Blog which is to Posematics . Which is a website that has photos of all sorts of positions with muscles and bones no skin so that you can see/draw where muscles and bones etc all meet. You can rotate the image 360 degrees its a fabulous resource. Have a look.

Jimmy PickeringAnother link i wanted to leave you this week is absolutely amazing artist whose site i have returned to multiple times during the week is Jimmy Pickering. I absolutely love this style of work which to me at first it looks like digital but it is all oil on board i would just love to know how he achieves those textures and backgrounds. I want to be able to paint like that !!! The creativity for the characters is fabulous as well i love those black swirls and lines and thing. Check it out.> http://www.dvagallery.com/pickering.htm

Thats all for this week, sorry for the delay ( i was working yesterday), and apologies for the weird formatting of the page blogger is messing with my mind and i just can't fix it.

----------------------------------------------------EDIT:

Ok, so after i wrote this post i went away and had a think about what i had written to me one of the voices i could hear was my aunty or and old art teacher telling me to do what i love and be true to myself and the rest will come .... Which reminded me of a post i read earlier in the week on Kasie's Art of Life blog where she talked about doing what you love and she had this quote from a book study she was doing of the book The Artists Way :

We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open.

Maybe this is the answer to my question maybe i should just stop wondering about what other people are doing and get on with what i like?

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

So this one kinda turned weird on me ... i was in a sketchy mood i probably should have worked on something else. Anywho here is the outcome... not sure what it is .. i digitally enhanced this one ... i think i am turning weird.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Well i hope this one doesn't look too much like a hairy tree, while doing it i thought it was going to be.The end colour isnt quite as vibrant as it shows in the scan here its more of a subdued colour, but its late and my eyes aren't quite up to the task, but i hope you like it. I couldnt resist putting the girl in again, i dont know what it is but i just feel like there need to be something else as well as the tree.

I also have some more oils to show you which i worked on today but i cant photograph them atm while they are still wet. So they can come to you in the next few days.

I was going to save this link for my weekly smudge but i just couldnt wait that long...Whether your a fan of the show or not you have to recognise the artistic abilities of the artists for The Simpsons and their abilities to create what they have done for all these years. Here is a website which allows you to find out what you would look like as a Simpson. Its so very cool i was playing with it for ages. all the graphics etc are so cool and i love the aliens. So here is us as a family as the Simpsons very cool.

Those of you who know us in person will agree they got my hubby Dan down pat, me and Max not so much, but baby Will looks pretty similar too.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Today i worked on a tree study. I have been studying these types of trees of late. The urge took me so i did this quickie... The support was a bit of board and the media is mixed between watercolour and coloured pencil so it wasnt the best support but i just wasnt in the mood for paper for some reason .. i was really rough with it pushing really hard on the board it was good ..

As i mentioned i am thinking of doing some a tree series, they wont just be plain trees tho, i was up in the bush the other day taking some good reference shots i am not sure i can pull off what i have in my head so you will be seeing lots of tree studies from me.

I also did these watercolours the other day .. they are on some greeting cards made from watercolour card stock (pre bought) i am stuck what to put in the middle of them obviously something is to go there ... just havent decided yet but i like the colours so i thought i would post them.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

weekly smudge!-things that have interested me during the weekThis week i have had a few things interest me, alot of them to do with webdesign and programming which i wont go into too much here, but one thing i came accross in my travels is a free wiki!!!

PBwiki.comNow i like to think that i am pretty much up to date with whats going on in the land of the web but i only recently found out what a wiki was about a month ago when a client said they wanted one!

So for those of you who dont know a wiki is a webpage/site that multiple people can edit. The most famous one is Wikipedia - the free encylopedia which i now use all the time.A wiki has hundreads of uses, you can use a wiki to keep lists or photos with just your immediate family or with a circle of friends you can use it to arrange meetings or get together or just updates on whats happening in your busy lives. A bit like a blog but one that all your friends can update :).I created a wiki and was surprised by the functionality and how easy it was to use. So if your interested in having your own wiki i can reccommed this free one. Check it out> http://pbwiki.com/

Stepping out of your comfort zoneThese past few weeks / months you may have noticed i have been struggling abit, just with finding out where my art/life is going and being stuck in a bit of a rut. I have realised that a good way to get out of this is to discover new things, getting out and about and finding new ways of doing your regular things. So consciously and subconsciously i have been doing this not only in art but in all areas of my life.

Some of the things i have been doing are: Shopping at different shops, making an effort to seek out friends, going to artshows (when previously i would have found some reason not to go), trying new recipes, moving the house around, trying out new mediums, trying new supports & subjects, doing new fun things with the kids, learning new design and programming techniques and wait for it... Allowing myself to at the beginning of each week ... use a brand new spanking dishcloth and throwing the other one in the bin ... yes not reusing it !!! Why .. i deserve it !! (its a pack of 20 for a $1- i can afford to get a new one each week i don't have a dishwasher it makes me feel cleaner and better !!!!)

All this has helped to have a renewed energy of late which has translated into my art so here are a few things in particular i have done with stepping out of my comfort zone.

Browsing with Firefox - ok this is kinda a no brainer but i have realised as i get older i am becoming a creature of habit .. and past years of trying to design for multiple browser versions made me skeptical and resistant to new browsers . Of late i have had more and more people talking about Firefox .. so i decided to give it a whirl... So the verdict - i really like it and am going to stick with it... of the main reason is that i don't have to type in my username and password each time i want to post to my or someone else's blog ..Its got other features too if you up for a change give it a whirl.

Another thing i realised do particularly when i paint is stay close to my usual colour palette which hasn't really changed over the years - of lots of bright colours. Recently i have also been looking at many artists' websites and different styles of work .... i realised that I find i often like a particular set of similar earthy type colours and artist styles ..... two inparticular i have looked at are:Cathy Nichols - http://cathynichols.blogspot.com/Valaine- Silent Dreamer's Art Blog - http://valaine.blogspot.com/

Obviously each are their own individual styles but i noticed i tend to like that type of thing :) So i decided i wanted to use those types of colours ... so i have started a few little oils with these colours using these colour palettes as an inspiration and its been great it feels really fresh and new !!!

Monday, July 16, 2007

So here is my beginning of oils, (sorry about the bad pic) dont worry i am not giving up my pencils .. but i am having fun getting a bit looser with my styles and not worrying so much about trying to make things look too real :)

I have a few more these coming.. i have been working on 4 at the same time .. this is the first one finished...i am starting to get a feel for them again .. so its been good. :)

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Kasie Sallee of The Art of Life blog has awarded me a Rockin' Girl Blogger award. I feel very honored and is my first award Woot!

I am a regular reader of Kasie's blog and absolutely love her work as she put it on her blog "She's on the same journey that I'm on" and feel like we are coming through a new progression in each of our respective artworks together.

So i feel very happy to be a Rockin' Girl Thanks Kasie make sure you all checkout her blog.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Well as you can see i made a few changes to my blog.I was in the mood so i updated the graphics to be inline with the website revamp. I had a really cute background image for the sidebar which looks great but i cant get to show up so you will just have to make do.

Anyway just wanted to say any problems with the design let me know always looking for feedback.

While i was here i just thought i would post this one i found in my portfolio folder. It was pen and ink one i did going on 10 years ago now. It reminds me of the trees i have been doing. they are great fun :)

Well as you may or maynot know I am a regular reader of Katherine Tyrell's - Making a Mark website recently she has introduced a new segment where she posts everyweek what has made a mark for the week. Read her last weekly post here.

I have really enjoyed reading her posts ............and i think its a great idea so have decided to adopt the concept (urgh copy - sorry Katherine) and endeavour to provide a weekly tidbit of interest to my blog readers each week. I wont keep it as detailed as Katherine's but more like just a couple of links that have kept me interested during the week - cause lets face it i do ALOT of surfing the web and then at least i can tell myself that my browsing isnt a time waster, i am doing it all for you guys!

weekly smudge!- things that have interested me during the week

This week has been a busy week for webdesign around here all of a sudden i have had an influx of work and busy both programming and designing, this coupled with redeveloping my website has prompted me to train myself again as to what's new in the world of code and programming (having two kids kinda puts you out of the loop).

So i started looking through the new ways to code websites and realised that its changed a bit in the past few years but not that much. And while i have had "programmers" not like the way i code..because its not using all the latest coding tricks.. as i designer it gets the design and job done (why spend and hour trying to get graphics to align properly a certain way ... when you can do it another way in 5mins with a few extra code lines, they say its about how the browser reads the code etc. etc. but really for the kind of sites I am doing its not really going to matter too much HOW much difference is it really going to make – we all mostly have broadband these days don’t we?)

So this week alot of time has been spent updating my knowledge about code and programming and Flash and all that stuff most artists really don't want to know too much about. Recently I was thinking marketing my design / programming services to other artists for their websites (my new one is pretty easy to use and perfect for artists) but i discovered there are already a few people doing that.

This week I was very happy to be included in the Ann Kullberg’s 8th Annual Member Show you can see all of the entries at http://www.annkullberg.com/show8.phpAnd yes they are all coloured pencil if you aren’t CP artist.

So that sums up this week pretty much I could ramble on forever more coming to you next week !

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

So i got some roses the other day. I wont go into why .. but lets just say i DESERVED them :) LOL

My youngest just loves smelling the flowers he is at that cute age where he is discovering everything with innocence.. about 2 secs after this photo was taken they spilled out everywhere onto the floor ... sigh .. i guess it was worth it for the photos. I had an excellent one which would have been perfect .. but i snapped too late the shot was blurry.. bummer cause the light was just perfect.

So here is another tree I think i actually liked my previous tree sketch better. But i have decided i need to DO rather than agonise too much about how things will turn out .. and wasting materials. this one still is a little cutie. i really would like to place a little girl / lady with her back to you down underneath the tree.. it needs something there i might see if i can manage that not confident in being able to draw it that's all :)

I cant take all the credit for this one i was inspired by this the Silent Dreamers blog i am not sure how i came across it but i just love all of the colours and really liked her similar drawing (hers is much better :) but i so enjoy these watercolour / pen and ink drawings :) i of coursecouldn't stop myself and put cp onto of mine which i probably shouldn't have done .. but oh well :)

I also started some little oils yesterday now i am waiting for them to dry *sigh* .. not sure i will have to patience to carry on with them, and hubby wasn't happy i was stinking out the room with "petrol smells that were giving me a headache" so hmmm lets just see how that one goes.

Well i have a secret, i secretly have been planning a tree painting/pic :) shhhh

I wont unveil the plans just yet but if i can do what i am after it might become a series or "my thing"... so lets just see shall we..

just to get into the swing of things here is a tree sketch from a ref photo i took at a friends wedding a few years ago :)

n.b. tree was the first thing i ever sketched that looked decent :) way back in art in highschool which the teacher showed me a few little tips on shading etc.. it really opened my eyes so i kinda have a soft spot for trees

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Well my goal to get more messy in my paintings has finally for one piece been achieved. It's not quite to the exact standard i had hoped but i really need to call this one done and move on (i was overworking things AGAIN). So anyway i kept it messy despite myself trying to keep it neat and finished this one.

I will get a better pic for you in the morning but i thought i would also show you my lastest investment this box easel. I have been eyeing them for a while and been meaning to pick one up but always hesistated. Today on my visit to the artshop they had a sale and i wasn't in the mood to resist one little bit!

I also picked up a projector to project drawings / photos onto larger canvases & paper WoooT ! i have also been eyeing these for ages they usually retail for about $230-but today price was right $90- in a stocktake sale so got this also ...i guess i better get on with doing more work and maybe selling something to pay for all this !!!

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Sometimes in our lives we come to crossroads and events that change the direction of where we are heading. I have reached that point in both art and life recently but now i am struggling which way to go?

As for life, well i wont go into that on my blog, that would be a story that would lean itself to a very typical soap opera which i don't want to embarrass you all with. *sigh* Lets just say its made me assess my life, my relationships, my strengths and how i am existing in the world its been a good step forward despite the angst and heartbreak of it all. And has made me realise i am a much stronger person than i give myself credit for and all i can do is do my best and that's an ok thing to live by :)

As for art, i feel like my style is changing my techniques are changing and what was once a satisfying subject is now not measuring up. Which don't get me all wrong is good, in fact its GREAT as i know its how I move forward but the pitfall is now that i am stuck ! not knowing where to turn what to tackle next, where to make that mark on the page, what materials to use?

I have ideas of what i want to paint in my head, but i cant finalise them, i start to sketch and i feel like my skills aren't strong enough or cant get down what i want so i move away to something else but ends up that being the same thing. I have been looking at many other artists websites and styles and i get discouraged as i have all this self doubt on being able to do anything remotely decent.

I feel like i have lost that freedom which comes with just creating something fun as i am always trying to make it look "real" or a certain way rather than just having fun (you know how expensive the materials get .. i don't want to waste them). I think i need to just let go rather than trying to "achieve" something everytime i do anything!

As i read through this all it sounds silly and i know this is something all creative people go through and its just a matter of working through it. So i am hoping just writing this post will help me do that and you know what i feel better already !!!! wooT

inspiration

I think i have an urge to give oils another whirl!!! I have been looking at a few artists work recently who just have such rich colours and textures i would just love to try to achieve which is i think alot harder to do in acrylic. The messiness has put me off as has the drying time especially with the two littlies running around. But i am thinking i am at the point where i want to experiment. I think first tho i am going to make myself finish off this piece i started at the beginning of the year .. its one of my goals is to finish works before moving to next ones so i have this and my pears to do before going further. So nag me to see it!!! Cause i need someone to make me do it!!

While we are on inspiration one of my favourite artists who i have admired for years is an Australian artist and photographer David Baxter - http://www.studiobaxter.com/

Last night i was revisiting his work and i just love it not only the way he captures textures and lighting but also his subjects are just so interesting. He just comes up with some fabulous things its just fabulous. I particularly love the way he does his skies something i really want to give a go working on as i cant seem to get them right with cp or acrylic. On his recent works page he has a "step by step exposé " of how he paints. Its very interesting to see how he works very similar to the old masters, well worth a look especially for oil painters but also for other artists as well.

One more thing i am excited about...BOOK -"Masterful Colour" by Arlene Steinberg

I have just seen this promotion for Arlene's new book which is due to come out in March 2008 which i will definitely be purchasing and so excited about...

Arlene is one of the people responsible for my love of CP's she first dazzled me with her wit and her CP techniques (through her tutorials on WetCanvas and then on SribbleTalk). She is an absolutely fabulous teacher and definitely knows her stuff so i am excited about this you can preorder the book via paypal or just go to see the front cover here. http://www.arlenesteinberg.com/MasterfulColorPage.htm